HAIR
BEAUTY
WARDOBE
PHOTOGRAPHY
Atoria Jordan
Atoria Jordan
Atoria J. Styling
Miss irie Blues
TORIA JORDAN
A
To conclude FEMININE = RIGHT portrait series, the universe aligned the creative minds of Atoria Jordan and I. Everything was perfect timing. She just curated a lounge space of gold during RUSH FEST 2021 (Tulsa, OK) and twisted her hair into Bantu-Knots, a traditional African hairstyle from Bantu. In these portraits there is a sense of richness in spirit and identity. I believe these types of hairstyles are like crowns or even an emblem of identity. It can serve to identify your culture, tribe, status, and role. To know where you come from is essential to understanding self.
In the past year I learned about shadow self, the part of ourselves that is consciously rejected. Because it is against social norms or could be a sin like nature. But “..we all have a dark side to our personality. It’s what makes us human. And instead of pretending they don’t exist, we need to embrace these parts of ourselves. Then we can learn from them, we can create more choice in our lives, we can access more creativity and we can be fully ourselves. Our shadow selves have huge gifts to offer us all.” (Katie Chuchman, Embracing The Darkness Within)
In perspective of the yin yang philosophy, the feminine side is our dark side and the masculine is our light side. Here it all finally makes sense. I dive deeper into research about the duality between feminine and masculine energy because I wanted to understand why people act the way they do towards women in the workplace, at home and in our communities. For myself I experienced this disrespect in my own community too many times. I understand though people are not perfect and everyone experiences disrespect sometimes. But this experience was and is happening too often by too many in male dominated spaces.
So this research concludes that many are rejecting the dark side of themselves known as our feminine side and also known as our inner self representing the moon. My mind was blown when I came to this realization. But then a few days later reflecting, I came to another conclusion. I myself have days where it is difficult to harmonize the feminine and masculine sides of myself. It is frustrating actually. I operate mostly in my own world as a feminine. And the feminine energy carries out the idea put forth by the creator aka the masculine. Therefore to operate in this world we need our masculine energy. So can’t be mad at those who do not exemplify this duality. Though we can have patience and exchange love, gentleness and faithfulness to our people. Because it is our duty to help sustain one another and our land. Some people just don’t know this information. And experience life with a lack of peace. With greater understanding, the less we embrace in our darkness, the less access we have to manifest balance in our conscious and subconscious experience.
REIMAGINING
IDENTITY
I am hoping through this portrait series you can receive a new perspective of feminine and masculine energy. Also through this series to reimagine identity in one self, our roles, our culture and in our community. The black matrix has to be destroyed.
TRANSCEND THE DIVISION
FEMININE = RIGHT, STANDS FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS, STANDS FOR EQUALITY, STANDS FOR THE WILD PERSPECTIVE OF THE RIGHT BRAIN IN RELATION TO THE LEFT BRAIN.
